Speaking of innovation and “thinking out of the box”, the ever-insightful Arthur Young sent over this little tale of “The Bathtub Test”:
During a visit to the mental asylum, I asked the Director how do you
determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.
‘Well,’ said the Director, ‘we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a
teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to
empty the bathtub.’
‘Oh, I understand,’ I said. ‘A normal person would use the bucket
because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.’
‘No.’ said the Director, ‘A normal person would pull the plug. Do you
want a bed near the window?’
The moral of the story? You’re never quite as far out of the box as you think you are.